Overland Park has been known for a lot of things around town, but an extensive network of bike trails and lanes hasn’t been at the top of the list…until now.

The City of Overland Park adopted a bicycle master plan in April that will easily change the face of bicycling in the city and in Johnson County. The City Council overwhelmingly approved plans for 263 miles of bicycling infrastructure throughout the city, including buffered bicycle lanes, marked bike routes, shared use paths and shared lane markings (we call them sharrows).

While it does come with an estimated $27 million price tag, it’s worth pointing out that it’s going to take a while to get it all done, which spreads the price out. The study also estimates that 75% of the proposed bike plan (200 miles) could be put in place for less than $3 million and would be phased in over the next decade or more.

And it doesn’t mean rebuilding existing roads – mostly just reconfiguring how they’re striped when the time comes to redo what’s there already. With that, and a few new trails, the city has taken a really important step in making it safe and convenient to bike from one block to the next or from one end of the city to the other. It’s all in the plan.

Vireo spent the better part of a year working with Toole Design Group on their first-ever comprehensive bicycle plan. We can’t wait to see how it changes Overland Park for the better in the years to come.